A grrl's view of our dumb world.

Post navigation

Black Friday: Take a Life, Get Discounted Shit

If I were to ask you to describe American consumerism at its peak, what would you thinhk of? The economy in its current state, filled with credit freezes and homeowner bailouts. Or would you think of Black Friday?

Unfortunately, the latter response wins. American consumers have mercilessly managed to take lives for the sake of the(corporate) holiday season. I didn’t realize that one life = 32″ HDTV priced at $500.00. I guess I’ll consider trampling someone to death for a once a year discount.

And yes, that did happen this past weekend in Long Island, NY at (not surprisingly) a Wal-Mart. A 34 year-old man named Jdimytai Damour, also a temporary maintenance worker, was killed upon opening up the doors. Over 200 people on the outside managed to knock down the doors pushing Damour down and running him over. After news of his death, people were asked to leave but many responded that they’d been waiting in line since Friday morning. Sickening. Four shoppers and a pregnant woman were also injured.

The king of consumer-exploitation, Wal-Mart, issued this statement:

“We expected a large crowd this morning and added additional internal security, additional third-party security, additional store associates and we worked closely with the Nassau County police. We also erected barricades. Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred.”

Ha, unfortunate indeed. You know, because a LIFE was lost over that last Nintendo Wii bundle.

And there you have it. Only in America would a life be taken unjustifiably for the sake of material goods. Maybe we should all take a step back and realize that our greed is what’s got us in the current economic mess we’re in right now. Yes, we all want to live the American dream but at what cost? We go so far as to borrow a bunch of money we don’t have to feel good about ourselves and our lives because material things is how we base our success. When will Americans realize that all of this shit means nothing — especially when it comes to life and death.

I was going to post that story but I news reports never made it clear whether or not they shot each other over something personal or over a toy. Either way it’s absolutely disgusting that this would happen in Toy Store — better yet, it’s horrible in general!